Friday, February 21, 2014

We've been missing from Flannel Friday for some time now. How does it all get so busy? Inquiring Jane needs to know! I do manage to check in and see what everyone has done - so I am ever-so-selfishly still inspired but I have not made a new flannel board set in months. I am grateful for the beautiful work and creativity that is on-going. Many thanks to the flannelizers out there!

I had the honor this winter of serving on the Cybils Awards Committee as a finalist judge in the Fiction Picture Book Category. Very cool experience, educational, thoughtful, and friendly. I hope I get to do it again. Click here for application info Oh, and FYI, I was not the only FF-er serving this year...look who served on the Poetry Committee:

Lucky for me...the winning title in the Fiction Picture Book Category also happened to be my current most favorite book. My thanks to the talented Betsy Bird for keeping us aware of the results of Mock Caldecotts across the nation. I had a suspicion that this book would be a Caldecott honor or winner and was all set to run with it for Prime Time with Mrs. Breen and Piper (our pajama story time) on ALA's awards announcement day! We read the book in story time and made our craft despite the fact that it was not among the Caldecott winners. (Boo) And then...just when you think you are out of touch with what's what in books...the short list of Cybils finalist landed in my inbox and there was Mr Tiger *be still my heart* looking at me!! Pure delight. My task - read the short list, rank the books, defend my reasoning, sit back and read the opinions of other committee members. Think, re-read, re-write, REPEAT!

This book touched my heart - it encourages you to be true to you. Find yourself. Be yourself. The message is gentle and at some points silly but not crazy silly...it's rather respectful. I love it.

Perfect book for story time - there were so many giggles seeing the naked (au naturel) Mr Tiger!

Mr. Tiger Goes Wild opens to muted tones of a proper Victorian society of well-mannered animals, living in houses and walking on two legs. Surrounded by an abundance of subdued suits, ties, dresses and tea, the daily hum-drum pushes Mr. Tiger outside the city limits to a place where he can ROAR! But first he undergoes the drama and surprising silliness of life on four legs, a swim in the water fountain and *gasp* a view of his magnificent, naked self. Confident artistic elements start on the decorative endpapers, capitalize on the freedom of double page illustrations, built intensity with the color palette, and combine seamlessly with the lean text of most carefully selected words. With great comedic timing and a light-handed touch on message, Peter Brown has written a clever, compelling invitation to self-discovery.

Now, one may think that a little black lab would have a difficult time with a Mr Tiger, but not so. Piper fell in love with this tale and lead the group ROAR!

Piper

The opinions here are mine and do not reflect my employer's. Successful librarianship requires collaboration. Amen

This is the place to play!

Welcome to our blog!

If you love to read & sing & dance with your children ~ please visit Piper and Jane every week! We will post stories and smiles, flannels and fingerplays, crafts and craziness and the very best Children's Books we know.

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About Me

I am the fortunate person who accompanies Piper to the Library where we work! Story Time - that's what we're about!
Eight years ago I decided that my love of dogs needed to be a part of my love of all things children and literacy.
Inspired by librarian/puppeteer, Peg Donovan, I went in search of the perfect pet. On the very first day..I spied with my very own eye... pink stripes...on Piper's tag!
She is an absolutely lovely lab who came home and immediately chewed my daughter's French/English dictionary. Mind you it was a petite paperback copy...but it had traveled to Paris and back. Sibling rivalry from the start! Piper was not willing to take a back seat in this family. And Oh My Goodness...a chewed-up book...what is a children's librarian to do? That's how our story began <3
Piper is my very real puppet and we love libraries, children, books, flannels, music and being silly.